Starting your Business Model Canvas (don't worry about all of the boxes, yet)

June 30, 2018

We start doing the business model canvas after session three of the "6 Month Startup - Ideation to Revenue" program. By that point, you've completed enough research and done enough initial customer development interviews to "get out of your head" with your idea get some initial feedback. You should the entire business model canvas over the next few month/sessions, but let's fast-track where to start using LeanStack.

The forcing functions

- Start with an acute focus on the Problem (not the product). You are going to end up pivoting your product as you learn from your customer development interviews. If you keep a keen eye on the problem you'll likely have to pivot less than

- Identify your Customer Segments - this is your narrow (vs broad "everyone can use my product") hypothesis around who can use your product at launch (not at scale).

- Outline you Unique Value Proposition - based on your initial research, what is the story that you need to tell so that it resonates with your customer segment? Telling that story and defining that message should begin to narrow down and prioritize the features that you believe you want to ship with your minimum viable product (MVP)

You can use Lean Stack to share your notes with co-founders and other collaborators. It also tracks your version control, so you can see how your hypothesis changes over time.